With the calendar inexorably (and arbitrarily) rolling over to mark another year in the human pantheon, one sometimes gets a sense that we are marking time rather than making history. In a push-button, on-demand world, we find ourselves largely consuming events instead of attending – or creating – them, and likewise oftentimes play the role of spectator even in the more personal spaces of our lives (i.e., changing one’s cover photo but nothing else in our midst). This is not so much a lamentation as an observation, but with yet another round of campaign politics/spectacle upon us, it seems worth noting.
To wit, the mainstream political focus on the campaign trail appears to rest primarily on semi-scandalized tidbits, gotcha sound bites and the personal affectations of ersatz reality show celebrities. Shall we turn our fortunes and futures over to the strident magnate, the failed CEO, the hawkish ultimate insider, the legacy candidate, the populist outsider (on either end of the spectrum), the one with the compelling personal story and/or photogenic likeness, the safe choice for ostensible continuity? It’s an intriguing tableau of variations on a theme, perhaps akin to picking from the menu in a fast-food establishment: which high-sodium, sugar-laden, preservative-filled, styrofoam-packed option will it be?
Meanwhile, relegated far below the radar and outside of the limelight altogether, there reside the actual existential issues that dominate this era of functional distraction and comfortable disengagement. (Nero may have fiddled while Rome burned, but I wonder what will be said of us – that we tweeted while the planet warmed?) The interlocking crises of perpetual warfare, privatized austerity, rapacious climate change, widening inequality, environmental degradation, mass refugeeism, endemic racism and more continue almost unchecked and without much interest beyond that afforded any other ephemeral ‘news’ item that pops up in our queue. It’s not the ‘society of the spectacle’ but of the unspectacular.
I got to thinking about all of this the other day when I heard a reference to Y2K. Remember that farce? With the millennial calendar change at hand, a hyped up pre-apocalypse was promulgated to convince us that the world as we knew it would end if the machines stopped working. This was before the onset of the digital age and the advent of the ubiquitous devices that adorn nearly every palm. This was before drones, social networks and binge watching permeated the culture. This was before we came to realize (or not) that the post-Y2K problem wasn’t going to be that our devices failed, but instead that they would work all too well. The apocalypse came and no one noticed – just as it was designed to function.
All of this is merely to suggest, in a roundabout way, that the question of what works? is more than a theoretical inquiry. When we consider substantive alternatives to shallow hegemonies, this is actually an era with a surprising degree of innovation. As the contributions to this issue firmly demonstrate, there is heightened awareness of critical questions – and a willingness to imagine and implement viable options in the face of shrinking space to do so. Inspiring inquiries pursued here include pedagogical interventions, restorative alternatives and rights-based formulations. The authors herein explore salient issues from Jamaica and Pakistan to college campuses and virtual spaces. At every point, a sense of critical engagement with pressing concerns is palpable, as is the capacity to offer other possibilities.
As always, you are invited not only to share in reading these works, but to participate with them on a deeper level. Utilize them to bolster your own arguments for cutting-edge inquiries and innovative alternatives. Offer constructive critiques to expand the discussions and take the analysis further. Reach out to the authors and engage in direct dialogue with them. And consider sharing your own work with the readers of this journal. The days ahead bid all of us to move from being a consumer to a contributor.
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